Enjoy 

It's true that Astrea, when first received, have difficulty righting themselves. There is a very good reason for this. They are weak and almost starving to death after holding and transport from the waters south of Florida and the Caribbean. Starvation caused by Holding and transport are one of the major causes of all reef animal death. Yet, Astrea can live for many years eating great quantities nuisance algae and can become almost as large as a Pacific Turbo Snail.

Price-wise and benefit-wise I believe Astrea are the best reef snail overall. I try to use 50% Astrea, 25% Cerith and 25% Margarita Snails in my aquariums. Pacific Turbo Snails are used when the rock and coral are secure enough to handle their bulldozing or when the red cotton candy algae, Asperigopsis, is present.

This is how I help them adjust:

1. If purchased locally, I acclimate the quick way by exchanging water for 10 minutes, then hold them out of water for 10-15 seconds. Being out of water for this short period makes them happy to get back into the water despite any slight differences in parameters.

2. I place them in the tank, piling them together near glass or rock. Putting them in a pile allows them to grab hold of each other and crawl onto the glass, rock and sand where soft surface algae is growing for them to immediately start eating. (Remember they are starving  so make sure there is algae.)

3. With a long stick I right any that have not grabbed hold or are upside down on the sand. 

4. Within the first week or so, if any fall onto the sand, I use a stick to push them back over to the rock or glass so they can grab hold and crawl away.

In a week or two, they are strong enough to hold tightly to the surface, but if they do fall, they are usually strong enough to reach way out and grab hold of something to right themselves.

Hope this helps.

Aloha,

Mark  

I think your stock list looks great. I used to have a 34gal RSM and it was stocked with essentially exactly what your proposed list is except I had a potters angel and a yellow assessor instead of a blenny. Tank ran well with minimal water changes for almost 3 years until I got a bigger tank. 

I think it's always a good idea to start with less snails and add more if needed, so there isn't a snail die off adding excess nutrients to the system.

I would recommend seeding the tank with a probiotic or multiple probiotics. I used both Seachem's Stability and Aquavitro's Seed on my newest tank system when I set it up dry. 

I don't like turbos because of the bulldozers that they are. So I may have to try the Astrea's

now all of those are great questions, but I am using white dry rock, unfortunately so the greens and browns are really prevalent it seems for the first little bit. (or at least how it appears to me) and the coraline seems to take a while. any algae that ive ever seen on my rocks, was always eaten by the Emerald Crabs that I have. I figured 16 snails was a good starting point, as I don't want to over stock and have a die off with a huge addition of nutrients added back into the tank.

One thing I might say is that 16 snails may not be sufficient. I often talk about having one Snail/gal. and yet some mature tanks do well with 1/4 that number. It depends partly on the amount of mature LR and LS the tank is started with (influencing the size of the bug population and Stomatella Snail population), partly on how much Macroalgae is used for start-up(more macro means less available nutrients/pollution), partly on how rapidly the larger animals are introduced, and partly on the type, amount and intensity of light. May I suggest, rather than put a set number to the amount of Snails, think of snails from a different perspective:

Are there enough Snails for the time being? 

How often do I have to scrape algae off the glass? (this question is not about clean glass )

What is the general appearance of the LR? 

Is it turning shades of brown in spots? 

Is it turning green in spots? 

Is Coralline Algae starting to spread? (this question is about too many hungry Hermits)

Is nuisance algae starting to sprout anywhere on the LR? 

What type and how extensive? 

Am I seeing any areas of Cyano or diatom growth? 

How large are those areas?

These are just some of the questions I ask myself as I watch a new tank grow. The answers tell me what the tank needs.

I really don't understand the hobbyist interest in Trochus Snails. They are no better at eating algae than the same size Astrea and yet they cost 4x more. Small Pacific Turbo Snails eat more than Trochus and cost half as much. Is there something I'm missing? Please enlighten me.

Aloha,

Mark  

Fish:

2 Clowns

1 BTA

Corals:

1 Hammer/Frog Spawn

1 Duncan

seems like a really long list, but I think this should work. What do you all think?